Method and system for providing notification

ABSTRACT

A system for providing a notification for a plurality of messages is disclosed. The system may include a memory and at least one processor. The at least one processor may be configured to receive the plurality of messages from one or more devices associated with one or more users; identify one or more subjects associated with the plurality of messages; and provide the notification including the plurality of messages to a device associated with a recipient, wherein the plurality of messages are arranged in the notification based on the identified one or more subjects, and wherein the one or more users and the recipient exchange the plurality of messages in a collaborative environment.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication systemsand, more particularly, methods and systems for providing notificationsin a collaborative environment.

BACKGROUND

In a collaborative communication environment, a group of participantsmay use user devices to engage in communications, such as instantmessaging (IM), chat, email, voice over IP (VoIP) phone call, audio orvideo conferencing. Participants of a communication group often discussa variety of different subjects in a communication session. When a useris not logged onto the collaborative environment or not activelyparticipating in a communications session, notifications may be sent tothe user's devices notifying the latest messages received. For example,the notification may include indications or snippets of the latestmessages and the indications may be arranged in a sequence based on thetime the corresponding messages are received.

SUMMARY

In one disclosed embodiment, a system for providing a notification for aplurality of messages is disclosed. The system comprises a memory and atleast one processor. The processor is configured to receive theplurality of messages from one or more devices associated with one ormore users; identify one or more subjects associated with the pluralityof messages; and provide the notification including the plurality ofmessages to a device associated with a recipient. The plurality ofmessages may be arranged in the notification based on the identified oneor more subjects. The one or more users and the recipient exchange theplurality of messages in a collaborative environment.

In another disclosed embodiment, a computer-implemented method forproviding a notification for a plurality of messages is disclosed. Thecomputer-implemented method comprises receiving the plurality ofmessages from one or more devices associated with one or more users;identifying one or more subjects associated with the plurality ofmessages; arranging the plurality of messages in the notification basedon the identified one or more subjects; and providing the notificationto a device associated with a recipient, wherein the one or more usersand the recipient exchange the plurality of messages in a collaborativeenvironment.

In another disclosed embodiment, a non-transitory computer readablemedium is disclosed. The non-transitory computer readable medium storesa set of instructions that is executable by at least one processor of aserver to cause the server to perform a method for providing anotification for a plurality of messages. The method comprises receivingthe plurality of messages from one or more devices associated with oneor more users; identifying one or more subjects associated with theplurality of messages; and providing the notification including theplurality of messages to a device associated with a recipient, whereinthe plurality of messages are arranged in the notification based on theidentified one or more subjects, and wherein the one or more users andthe recipient exchange the plurality of messages in a collaborativeenvironment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this disclosure, together with the description, illustrate and serveto explain the principles of various example embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of a collaborative communicationsystem in which various implementations described herein are practiced.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example user device for implementingembodiments consistent with the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example communication server, consistent withthe disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example process for providing anotification, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is an example notification for a plurality of messages, inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of another example process for providing anotification, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the example embodimentsimplemented according to the present disclosure, the examples of whichare illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, thesame reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer tothe same or like parts.

Collaborative communication environments provide participants with theability to engage in communications, such as instant messaging (IM),chat, email, voice over IP (VoIP) phone call, audio or videoconferencing. Participants of a communication group in a collaborativeenvironment may exchange messages and discuss multiple subjects in acommunication session. The messages may contain text, audio, video,data, or any other multimedia content.

When a user is not logged onto the collaborative environment or when auser is not participating in exchanging messages in a communicationssession in a collaborative environment, notifications are sent to theuser's device(s) notifying the user of the presence of new messages inthe collaborative environment. Such notifications often include one ormore indications or snippets of the latest messages that are bundled ina notification in order to alert the user of the content of the messagesexchanged. Users in a communications session of a collaborativeenvironment often exchange messages relating to different topics. Whenseveral different subjects are discussed in the messages of thenotification, it becomes difficult for a user to identify what subjecteach message is relating to and to understand the context of themessages. If a user seeks to find messages relating to a particularsubject, the user may need to manually sift through all the indicationsor snippets in the notification one by one. Not only this is cumbersomeas the user has to often review several notifications in order todetermine messages relating to a desired subject, but also the user maybe unable to gain access to the full content of the exchanged messagessince the notifications or snippets may not contain the messages intheir entirety.

Moreover, the notification generally includes only messages discussed byparticipants of a communication group that the user is a member of. Theuser may not be able to view messages discussed outside of thecommunication group relating to a particular subject in thenotification, such as messages discussed by a different communicationgroup that the user is not a member of. Further, the notification mayinclude an action item for the user to act on, such as a taskassignment, and when the notification includes a number of messages, theaction item may be unnoticed by the user and thereby delaying thecompletion of the task.

Thus, notifications that provide context of the messages and allow theuser to easily appreciate the subject of each message are desired. It isalso desired that the notification provides the capability to remind theuser of an action item in a collaborative environment and to displaymessages that may be of interest to the user.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods andsystems for providing a notification for a plurality of messages in acollaborative environment. Consistent with disclosed embodiments, acommunications server may receive the plurality of messages from one ormore devices associated with one or more users, where the one or moreusers may exchange the plurality of messages in a collaborativeenvironment. The communications server may identify one or more subjectsassociated with the plurality of messages and provide the notificationincluding the plurality of messages to a device associated with arecipient. The plurality of messages may be arranged in the notificationbased on the identified one or more subjects.

The embodiments herein include computer-implemented methods, tangiblenon-transitory computer-readable mediums, and systems. Thecomputer-implemented methods can be executed, for example, by at leastone processor that receives instructions from a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium. Similarly, systems and devicesconsistent with the present disclosure can include at least oneprocessor and memory, and the memory can be a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium. As used herein, a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium refers to any type of physical memoryon which information or data readable by at least one processor can bestored. Examples include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, hard drives, CD ROMs, DVDs,flash drives, disks, and any other known physical storage medium.Singular terms, such as “memory” and “computer-readable storage medium,”can additionally refer to multiple structures, such a plurality ofmemories or computer-readable storage mediums. As referred to herein, a“memory” can comprise any type of computer-readable storage mediumunless otherwise specified. A computer-readable storage medium can storeinstructions for execution by at least one processor, includinginstructions for causing the processor to perform steps or stagesconsistent with an embodiment herein. Additionally, one or morecomputer-readable storage mediums can be utilized in implementing acomputer-implemented method. The term “computer-readable storage medium”should be understood to include tangible items and exclude carrier wavesand transient signals.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a collaborative communication system 100 inwhich various implementations as described herein are practiced.Collaborative communication system 100 enables a plurality of users toexchange messages with one another via the associated user devices andto receive notifications of new messages when the user is not loggedonto the collaborative communication system. In some examples, one ormore components of collaborative communication system 100, such ascommunication server 150, can be used to implement computer programs,applications, methods, processes, or other software to perform thedescribed techniques and to realize the structures described herein.

As shown in FIG. 1, collaborative communication system 100 includes oneor more user devices 120A-120E (collectively as user devices 120), anetwork 140, a communication server 150, and a database 170.Collaborative communication system 100 is a collaborative environmentthat allows a group of participants (e.g., one or more participants130A-130E) using associated user devices (e.g., one or more user devices120A-120E) to engage in communications, such as instant messaging (IM),chat, email, voice over IP (VoIP) phone call, audio or videoconferencing, etc., as well as sharing communication content associatedwith the collaboration such as data files, documents, images,audio/video content, etc. The components and arrangements shown in FIG.1 are not intended to limit the disclosed embodiments, as the systemcomponents used to implement the disclosed processes and features canvary.

The network 140 facilitates communications and sharing of contentbetween the user devices 120 and the communication server 150. Althoughshown as separate from network 140, in some embodiments, server 150 maybe included within network 140. The network 140 may be any type ofnetworks that provides communications, exchanges information, and/orfacilitates the exchange of information between the communication server150 and user devices 120. For example, the network 140 may be theInternet, a Local Area Network, a cellular network, a public switchedtelephone network (“PSTN”), or other suitable connection(s) that enablescollaborative communication system 100 to send and receive informationbetween the components of collaborative communication system 100. Anetwork may support a variety of messaging formats, and may furthersupport a variety of services and applications for user devices 120.

The communication server 150 may be a system associated with acommunication service provider which provides messaging services tousers, such as participants 130A-130E. The communication server 150 mayalso be configured to provide other data or services, such as voice,messaging, real-time audio/video, to the users. The communication server150 may be a computer-based system including computer system components,desktop computers, workstations, tablets, hand held computing devices,memory devices, and/or internal network(s) connecting the components.The communication server 150 may be configured to receive messaginginformation from user devices 120 over the network 140, process themessaging information, store the messaging information, and/or transmitmessaging information to the user devices 120 over the network 140.

For example, participants 130A-130E (collectively as participants 130)may belong to a communication group and exchange information betweenmembers of the communication group. Participants 130A-130D are loggedonto the collaborative communication system, while participant 130E iscurrently offline. The communication server 150 is configured to receivea plurality of messages sent by participants 130A-130D through userdevices 120A-120D, identify one or more subjects associated with theplurality of messages, and provide the notification including theplurality of messages to user device 120E associated with participant130E, where the plurality of messages are arranged in the notificationbased on the identified one or more subjects. The user device 120E maydisplay the notification according to the subject designated to eachmessage. The communication server 150 may maintain and manage aplurality of communication groups simultaneously. The communicationserver 150 may also be configured to maintain a list of participants foreach communication group. In some implementations, the functionality ofthe communication server 150 described in the present disclosure isdistributed among one or more of the user devices 120A-120E. Forexample, a part or all of the messages in a communication session may bestored in one or more of the user devices 120, and one or more of theuser devices 120A-120E may perform functions such as analyzing themessages in a communication session to differentiate multiple subjectsin the messages, and designating a subject to each of the message in thecommunication session.

The database 170 includes one or more physical or virtual storagescoupled with the communication server 150. The database 170 utilizes oneor more storage mechanisms based on any tangible and/or non-transitorystorage or memory. Further, the database 170 may store the data in avariety of formats. For example, the database 170 may be anobject-relational database, a non-relational database, a full-textindexed data storage, and/or other database system. The database 170 isconfigured to store messages exchanged in a communication session. Thedatabase 170 may also be adapted to store a plurality of subjectsreflected in the messages exchanged between participants 130. The datastored in the database 170 may be transmitted to the communicationserver 150 before or during an ongoing communication session. In someembodiments, the database 170 is stored in a cloud-based server (notshown) that is accessible by or separate from the communication server150 and/or the user devices 120 through the network 140. While thedatabase 170 is illustrated as an external device connected to thecommunication server 150, the database 170 may also reside within thecommunication server 150 as an internal component of the communicationserver 150.

As shown in FIG. 1, participants 130A-130E of a communication group sendand/or exchange messages with one another using various types of userdevices 120A-120E in a communication session. As an example, userdevices 120A, 120B, and 120D include a display such as a television,tablet, computer monitor, video conferencing console, or laptop computerscreen. User devices 120A, 120B, and 120D may also include video/audioinput devices such as a video camera, web camera, or the like. Asanother example, user devices 120C and 120E include mobile devices suchas a tablet or a smartphone having display and video/audio capturecapabilities. User devices 120A-120E may also include one or moresoftware applications that facilitate the user devices to engage incommunications, such as IM, VoIP, video conferences, with one another ina group messaging environment where each participant may view contentsof messages posted by other participants in a communication group andmay post messages that can be accessed by other participants in thecommunication group. Although FIG. 1 shows one user device associatedwith each participant, there may be more than one user device associatedwith a participant.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of a user device 200 for use in acollaborative communication system, such as collaborative communicationsystem 100. The user device 200 can be used to implement computerprograms, applications, methods, processes, or other software to performembodiments described in the present disclosure, such as the userdevices 120A-120E. The user device 200 includes a memory interface 202,one or more processors 204 such as data processors, image processorsand/or central processing units, and a peripherals interface 206. Thememory interface 202, the one or more processors 204, and/or theperipherals interface 206 can be separate components or can beintegrated in one or more integrated circuits. The various components inthe user device 200 can be coupled by one or more communication buses orsignal lines.

Sensors, devices, and subsystems can be coupled to the peripheralsinterface 206 to facilitate multiple functionalities. For example, amotion sensor 210, a light sensor 212, and a proximity sensor 214 can becoupled to the peripherals interface 206 to facilitate orientation,lighting, and proximity functions. Other sensors 216 can also beconnected to the peripherals interface 206, such as a global positioningsystem (e.g., GPS receiver), a temperature sensor, a biometric sensor,or other sensing device, to facilitate related functionalities. A GPSreceiver can be integrated with, or connected to, the user device 200.For example, a GPS receiver can be built into mobile telephones, such assmartphone devices. GPS software allows mobile telephones to use aninternal or external GPS receiver (e.g., connecting via a serial port orBluetooth). A camera subsystem 220 and an optical sensor 222, e.g., acharged coupled device (“CCD”) or a complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (“CMOS”) optical sensor, may be utilized to facilitatecamera functions, such as recording photographs and video clips.

Communication functions may be facilitated through one or morewireless/wired communication subsystems 224, which includes a Ethernetport, radio frequency receivers and transmitters and/or optical (e.g.,infrared) receivers and transmitters. The specific design andimplementation of the wireless/wired communication subsystem 224 dependson the communication network(s) over which the user device 200 isintended to operate. For example, in some embodiments, the user device200 includes wireless/wired communication subsystems 224 designed tooperate over a GSM network, a GPRS network, an EDGE network, a Wi-Fi orWiMax network, and a Bluetooth® network.

An audio subsystem 226 may be coupled to a speaker 228 and a microphone230 to facilitate voice-enabled functions, such as voice recognition,voice replication, digital recording, and telephony functions.

The I/O subsystem 240 includes a touch screen controller 242 and/orother input controller(s) 244. The touch screen controller 242 iscoupled to a touch screen 246. The touch screen 246 and touch screencontroller 242 can, for example, detect contact and movement or breakthereof using any of a plurality of touch sensitivity technologies,including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, andsurface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensorarrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contactwith the touch screen 246. While a touch screen 246 is shown in FIG. 2,the I/O subsystem 240 may include a display screen (e.g., CRT or LCD) inplace of the touch screen 246.

The other input controller(s) 244 is coupled to other input/controldevices 248, such as one or more buttons, rocker switches, thumb-wheel,infrared port, USB port, and/or a pointer device such as a stylus. Thetouch screen 246 can, for example, also be used to implement virtual orsoft buttons and/or a keyboard.

The memory interface 202 is coupled to memory 250. The memory 250includes high-speed random access memory and/or non-volatile memory,such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, one or more opticalstorage devices, and/or flash memory (e.g., NAND, NOR). The memory 250stores an operating system 252, such as DRAWIN, RTXC, LINUX, iOS, UNIX,OS X, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VXWorkS. Theoperating system 252 can include instructions for handling basic systemservices and for performing hardware dependent tasks. In someimplementations, the operating system 252 can be a kernel (e.g., UNIXkernel).

The memory 250 may also store communication instructions 254 tofacilitate communicating with one or more additional devices, one ormore computers and/or one or more servers. The memory 250 can includegraphical user interface instructions 256 to facilitate graphic userinterface processing; sensor processing instructions 258 to facilitatesensor-related processing and functions; phone instructions 260 tofacilitate phone-related processes and functions; electronic messaginginstructions 262 to facilitate electronic-messaging related processesand functions; web browsing instructions 264 to facilitate webbrowsing-related processes and functions; media processing instructions266 to facilitate media processing-related processes and functions;GPS/navigation instructions 268 to facilitate GPS and navigation-relatedprocesses and instructions; camera instructions 270 to facilitatecamera-related processes and functions; and/or other softwareinstructions 272 to facilitate other processes and functions. The memory250 may also include multimedia conference call managing instructions274 to facilitate conference call related processes and instructions.

In some embodiments, the communication instructions 254 may includesoftware applications to facilitate connection with the communicationserver 150 that hosts a messaging communication session among a group ofparticipants. The electronic messaging instructions 262 may include asoftware program that facilitates a participant associated with the userdevice to receive notification of new messages exchanged in acommunication group and subjects designated to each message from thecommunication server 150. Further, the electronic messaging instructions262 may include software applications for a participant associated withthe user device to edit a subject of one or more messages in thenotification and facilitate sending the subject to the communicationserver 150. The graphical user interface (GUI) instructions 256 mayinclude a software program that facilitates display of the receivednotification and facilitates a participant associated with the userdevice to provide user input, and so on. The graphical user interfaceinstructions 256 may also include a software program that causesmessages in the notification to be displayed based on subjectsdesignated to the messages. For example, messages designated as the samesubject may be displayed in the same color, and messages designated as adifferent subject may be displayed in a different color. As anotherexample, for each subject in the notification, a separate window may bedisplayed to contain messages designated to that subject. As anotherexample, for each subject in the notification, a separate part of thewindow is used to display messages designated to that subject, such asusing vertical lines, horizontal lines or diagonal (45 degree)separation lines to distinguish different subjects.

Each of the above identified instructions and applications maycorrespond to a set of instructions for performing one or more functionsdescribed above. These instructions need not be implemented as separatesoftware programs, procedures, or modules. The memory 250 may includeadditional instructions or fewer instructions. Furthermore, variousfunctions of the user device 200 may be implemented in hardware and/orin software, including in one or more signal processing and/orapplication specific integrated circuits.

FIG. 3 shows a diagram of an example communication server 150,consistent with the disclosed embodiments. The communication server 150may be implemented as a specially made machine that is speciallyprogramed to perform functions relating to providing notifications ofnewly received messages for a user of a collaborative communicationsystem. The special programming at the communication server 150 enablesthe communication server to receive a plurality of messages from devicesassociated with users of the collaborative communication system,identify subjects associated with the messages, and provide anotification including the plurality of messages to a device associatedwith a recipient based on the identified subjects.

The communication server 150 includes a bus 302 (or other communicationmechanism) which interconnects subsystems and components fortransferring information within the communication server 150. As shown,the communication server 150 may include one or more processors 310,input/output (“I/O”) devices 350, network interface 360 (e.g., a modem,Ethernet card, or any other interface configured to exchange data with anetwork), and one or more memories 320 storing programs 330 including,for example, server app(s) 332, operating system 334, and data 340, andcan communicate with an external database 170 (which, for someembodiments, may be included within the communication server 150). Thecommunication server 150 may be a single server or may be configured asa distributed computer system including multiple servers, server farms,clouds, or computers that interoperate to perform one or more of theprocesses and functionalities associated with the disclosed embodiments.

The processor 310 may be one or more processing devices configured toperform functions of the disclosed methods, such as a microprocessormanufactured by Intel™ or manufactured by AMD™. The processor 310 maycomprise a single core or multiple core processors executing parallelprocesses simultaneously. For example, the processor 310 may be a singlecore processor configured with virtual processing technologies. Incertain embodiments, the processor 310 may use logical processors tosimultaneously execute and control multiple processes. The processor 310may implement virtual machine technologies, or other technologies toprovide the ability to execute, control, run, manipulate, store, etc.multiple software processes, applications, programs, etc. In someembodiments, the processor 310 may include a multiple-core processorarrangement (e.g., dual, quad core, etc.) configured to provide parallelprocessing functionalities to allow the communication server 150 toexecute multiple processes simultaneously. It is appreciated that othertypes of processor arrangements could be implemented that provide forthe capabilities disclosed herein.

The memory 320 may be a volatile or non-volatile, magnetic,semiconductor, tape, optical, removable, non-removable, or other type ofstorage device or tangible or non-transitory computer-readable mediumthat stores one or more program(s) 330 such as server apps 332 andoperating system 334, and data 340. Common forms of non-transitory mediainclude, for example, a flash drive a flexible disk, hard disk, solidstate drive, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic data storage medium, aCD-ROM, any other optical data storage medium, any physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM or any otherflash memory, NVRAM, a cache, a register, any other memory chip orcartridge, and networked versions of the same.

The communication server 150 may include one or more storage devicesconfigured to store information used by processor 310 (or othercomponents) to perform certain functions related to the disclosedembodiments. For example, the communication server 150 includes memory320 that includes instructions to enable the processor 310 to executeone or more applications, such as server apps 332, operating system 334,and any other type of application or software known to be available oncomputer systems. Alternatively or additionally, the instructions,application programs, etc. are stored in an external database 170 (whichcan also be internal to the communication server 150) or externalstorage communicatively coupled with the communication server 150 (notshown), such as one or more database or memory accessible over thenetwork 140.

The database 170 or other external storage may be a volatile ornon-volatile, magnetic, semiconductor, tape, optical, removable,non-removable, or other type of storage device or tangible ornon-transitory computer-readable medium. The memory 320 and database 170may include one or more memory devices that store data and instructionsused to perform one or more features of the disclosed embodiments. Thememory 320 and database 170 may also include any combination of one ormore databases controlled by memory controller devices (e.g., server(s),etc.) or software, such as document management systems, Microsoft SQLdatabases, SharePoint databases, Oracle™ databases, Sybase™ databases,or other relational databases.

In some embodiments, the communication server 150 may be communicativelyconnected to one or more remote memory devices (e.g., remote databases(not shown)) through network 140 or a different network. The remotememory devices can be configured to store information that thecommunication server 150 can access and/or manage. By way of example,the remote memory devices could be document management systems,Microsoft SQL database, SharePoint databases, Oracle™ databases, Sybase™databases, or other relational databases. Systems and methods consistentwith disclosed embodiments, however, are not limited to separatedatabases or even to the use of a database.

The programs 330 include one or more software modules causing processor310 to perform one or more functions of the disclosed embodiments.Moreover, the processor 310 may execute one or more programs locatedremotely from one or more components of the collaborative communicationsystem 100. For example, the communication server 150 may access one ormore remote programs that, when executed, perform functions related todisclosed embodiments.

In the presently described embodiment, server app(s) 332 causes theprocessor 310 to perform one or more functions of the disclosed methods.For example, the server app(s) 332 may cause the processor 310 toreceive a plurality of messages from one or more devices associated withone or more users, identify one or more subjects associated with theplurality of messages, and provide a notification including theplurality of messages to a device associated with a recipient, where theplurality of messages are arranged in the notification based on theidentified one or more subjects. In some embodiments, other componentsof the collaborative communication system 100 may be configured toperform one or more functions of the disclosed methods. For example,user devices 120A-120E may be configured to host a communication sessionfor a communication group and identify subjects associated with aplurality of messages exchanged in the communication session. As anotherexample, user devices 120A-120E may be configured to provide anotification including the plurality of messages to a device associatedwith a participant of the communication group.

In some embodiments, the program(s) 330 may include the operating system334 performing operating system functions when executed by one or moreprocessors such as the processor 310. By way of example, the operatingsystem 334 may include Microsoft Windows™, Unix™, Linux™, Apple™operating systems, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) type operatingsystems, such as Apple iOS, Google Android, Blackberry OS, MicrosoftCE™, or other types of operating systems. Accordingly, disclosedembodiments may operate and function with computer systems running anytype of operating system 334. The communication server 150 may alsoinclude software that, when executed by a processor, providescommunications with network 140 through the network interface 360 and/ora direct connection to one or more user devices 120A-120E.

In some embodiments, the data 340 includes, for example, user profilesof participants of the communication group and historical communicationsoptionally coupled with any communication content between or associatedwith the users. The data 340 may also include timestamps associated witheach message in a communication session of a communication group. Forexample, the data 340 may include instant messages sent by theparticipants of a communication group, and the time each message iswritten, sent, read, and/or received.

The communication server 150 may also include one or more I/O devices350 having one or more interfaces for receiving signals or input fromdevices and providing signals or output to one or more devices thatallow data to be received and/or transmitted by the communication server150. For example, the communication server 150 may include interfacecomponents for interfacing with one or more input devices, such as oneor more keyboards, mouse devices, and the like, that enable thecommunication server 150 to receive input from an operator oradministrator (not shown).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example process 400 for providing anotification, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.The steps associated with this example process may be performed by, forexample, a processor of the communication server 150 of FIG. 1. Theorder of steps is optional. The example process 400 allows a user of acollaborative communication system to receive notifications of newlyreceived messages based on subjects of the messages, therebyfacilitating the user's appreciation of the context of the messages inthe notifications.

In step 410, the communication server receives a plurality of messagesfrom one or more devices associated with one or more users. The usersmay be members of a communication group in a collaborative communicationsystem, where the users exchange messages with one another in real-timevia the collaborative environment. The plurality of messages may containtext, audio, video, data, or any other multimedia content. In someimplementations, the plurality of messages are time-stamped based on atime when each message is transmitted or received.

In step 420, the communication server identifies one or more subjectsassociated with the plurality of messages. In some implementations, thecommunication server may identify which messages belong to the samesubject and differentiate among a plurality of subjects reflected in theplurality of messages, without identifying the subjects contained in themessages. In other implementations, the communication server mayidentify the subject each of the plurality of messages is relating to,in addition to identifying which messages belong to the same subject.

In some embodiments, the communication server may use machine learningtechniques to determine what subject is being discussed in each of theplurality of messages. For example, the amount of message data increaseswith messages exchanged in a communication session, and it becomeseasier to determine keywords to improve determining a suitable subjectto messages in the communication session. As another example, if a newmessage arrives from a user who is assigned as a role of a watcher,i.e., a security guard in the communication group, it is likely that newsubject is started. Machine learning techniques known by persons skilledin the art may be used to identify subjects in the plurality of messageswithout departing the scope of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the communication server may identify subjects inthe messages based on the identified keywords contained in the messages.Keyword detection methods known by persons skilled in the art may beused to identify subjects in the plurality of messages without departingthe scope of the present disclosure. In some implementations, if one ormore identical keywords are contained in some of the messages, thecommunication server may determine that it is likely that these messagesrelate to the same subject.

In some embodiments, the communication server may identify subjects inthe messages based on direct user inputs. For example, when typing amessage, a user may also enter or select a subject associated with themessage (e.g., using hashtags, @mentions, etc.) in a user deviceassociated with the user. The communication server may detect thesubject of the message based on the user input. In some embodiments, thecommunication server may identify subjects in the messages based on anassigned task, such as a message initiated from a task trackingsoftware.

In some embodiments, the communication server may identify subjects inthe messages based on a timestamp associated with each message. Forexample, the communication server may determine whether the messagesbelong to the same subject based on a time period between the messages.The communication server may determine that the messages belong todifferent subjects if the time period between the messages is greaterthan a predetermined threshold. In some implementations, thecommunication server 150 may determine the time period between a firstmessage sent earlier by a first user and a second message sent later bya second user as the time period between the time a first message isread by the second user and the time the second user starts to write thesecond message. The reason is that there is a high likelihood that thesecond message relates to the same subject as the first message when thesecond user starts typing the second message right after reading thefirst message from the first user.

In some embodiments, when multiple techniques are used to identifysubjects in the plurality of messages, the communication server maycombine results generated by the various techniques with predeterminedweights. For example, a predetermined weight may be assigned to eachsubject identification technique. The predetermined weight for eachsubject identification technique may vary depending on the applicationscenarios. For example, the above-discussed timestamp method may beassigned a dominate weight in one scenario, while the above-discussedkeyword method may be assigned a dominate weight in another scenario. Insome embodiments, the communication server may first check keywordsassociated with the messages for identifying the likely subjects, anduse timestamps associated with the messages to determine the subjectswhen the messages are identified to be associated with two or moresubjects.

In step 430, the communication server provides the notificationincluding the plurality of messages to a device associated with arecipient. In one implementation, the plurality of messages may bearranged in the notification based on the identified one or moresubjects. This arrangement may be done separately, for example, althoughit is shown in step 430 in accordance with one implementation. Therecipient may belong to the same communication group as the one or moreusers and exchange messages with the one or more users in acollaborative environment. The recipient may be currently logged off thecollaborative communication system at the moment when the one or moreusers send the plurality of messages in the collaborative communicationsystem. The device associated with the recipient may display thenotification including the plurality of messages based on the identifiedone or more subjects associated with the messages.

In some embodiments, the device may display the messages associated withdifferent subjects in different sections in the notification. Forexample, a first group of messages relating to a first subject areplaced in a first section in the notification, and a second group ofmessages relating to a second subject are placed in a second section inthe notification. As another example, the messages corresponding to thedifferent subjects may be separated by diagonal (e.g., 45 degree)separation lines.

In some embodiments, the device may display messages belonging todifferent subjects in different colors, such that the recipient mayeasily differentiate messages for different subjects. In someembodiments, the device may display messages belonging to differentsubjects in a tree structure. For example, messages corresponding todifferent subjects may be placed in different nodes of the tree, andmessages corresponding to different sub-topics within the same subjectmay be placed in different child nodes under the same parent noderepresenting the common subject.

In some embodiments, the device provides an interface to allow therecipient to switch the display of notification between a regular modein which messages are displayed with no subject differentiation and asubject mode in which messages are displayed with the subjectdifferentiation. In some embodiments, the device provides an interfaceto allow the recipient to configure the notification to hide messagescorresponding to certain subjects in the notification and cause thosemessages to be hidden in the display.

In some embodiments, the notification includes the identified subjectscorresponding to the plurality of messages and, for each subject,indicates a group of messages corresponding to that subject. In otherembodiments, the notification indicates which messages belong to thesame subject without identifying the subjects corresponding to themessages, and messages corresponding to the same subject may be groupedtogether in the display.

In some embodiments, the communication server may search differentcommunication groups and include in the notification messages fromexternal sources that are relevant to the identified subjects. Forexample, the one or more users and the recipient may belong to a firstcommunication group, and one of the identified subjects in the pluralityof messages sent by the one or more users relates to an internationalconference on software engineering. The communication server may detectthat members of a second communication group are discussing the samesubject and provide in the notification messages relating to theinternational conference on software engineering exchanged by members inthe second communication group. In some implementations, thecommunication server may first obtain permission from members of thesecond communication group before providing the messages exchanged inthe second communication group in the notification to the recipient.

In some embodiments, the communication server may identify an externalsource associated with one of the identified subjects and provide a weblink associated with the external source in the notification. Theexternal source may not be a part of the collaborative environment usedfor exchanging messages between the one or more users and the recipient.For example, the communication server may identify that the plurality ofmessages relate to a software development issue tracked by Jira andprovide in the notification a link to the Jira project page. In someimplementations, the external source may be a part of the collaborativeenvironment used for exchanging messages between the one or more usersand the recipient. For example, the communication server may identifythat the plurality of messages relate to a document shared by one of theusers in the collaborative environment and provide in the notification alink to the shared document.

In some embodiments, the communication server may identify messages inpast communications that are pertinent to one of the identified subjectsand include the messages in past communications in the notificationssent to the recipient. The messages in past communications have alreadybeen received by the recipient in the past, and providing those pastmessages in the notification facilitates the recipient to understand thecontext of the newly received messages. For example, the communicationserver may identify that some of the newly received messages relate to aparticular software development project and provide messages exchangedin the past relating to the particular software development project inthe notification. In doing so, the recipient may be mindful of thecommunications happened in the past on this subject for a goodunderstanding of the context of the newly received messages. In someimplementations, the device associated with the recipient may provide aninterface for the recipient to select whether to receive pastcommunications relating to the same subjects in the notification of newmessages. The interface may also allow the recipient to select the timeperiod for the past communications to show in the notification, such as3 days, 7 days, and so on.

In some embodiments, the communication server may identify that thenewly received messages relate to a task assigned to the recipient andprovide a taskbar in the notification indicating a progress of the task.For example, some of the newly received messages may relate to the taskof updating the product roadmap, and the recipient is one of theassignees of the task. The communication server may then provide ataskbar in the notification indicating that a current progress of thetask, such as 10% completed. The communication server may also provide adue date of the task and name(s) of the assignee(s) in the notification.In some embodiments, the communication server may identify messages inthe past that relate to the task assignment and include those messagesin the notification. For example, when some of the newly receivedmessages relate to the task of updating the product roadmap, thecommunication server may include the past message creating the task andpast messages from assignees updating the progress of the task in thenotification. In another embodiment, the communication server candetermine related messages in other applications. For example, whenthere is an email thread related to the same question, the server canprovide messages from the email thread in the notification or attach theemail thread to the notification.

In some embodiments, some or all of the steps in the process 400 may beperformed by a user device, such as the user devices 120A-120E ofFIG. 1. For example, the user device may be configured to receive aplurality of messages from one or more devices associated with one ormore users, identify one or more subjects associated with the pluralityof messages, and/or provide a notification including the plurality ofmessages to a device associated with a recipient, where the plurality ofmessages are arranged in the notification based on the identified one ormore subjects.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example notification 500 for a plurality ofmessages, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Theplurality of messages are exchanged in a collaborative environment whena recipient is logged out of the collaborative environment, and thenotification 500 for the plurality of messages is displayed in a deviceassociated with the recipient. As shown in FIG. 5, the new messagescorrespond to three identified subjects 502, 504, and 506, i.e., teammeeting, server failure, and baby shower. The new messages are organizedin the notification 500 based on the three identified subjects, wheremessages corresponding to the same subjects are grouped together, andmessages corresponding to different subjects are displayed in differentparts of the notification. In this example, the identified subjects 502,504, and 506 for each of the newly received messages are also providedin the notification. In other implementations, while messagescorresponding to the same subjects are grouped together in thenotification, the subjects for each of the newly received messages maynot be provided in the notification. FIG. 5 serves as an example ofpresenting the notification based on the subjects of the new messages,and the present disclosure does not intend to limit the way thenotification is displayed based on the subjects of the messages.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example process 600 for providing anotification, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.The steps associated with this example process may be performed by, forexample, a processor of the communication server 150 of FIG. 1. Theexample process 600 allows a user of a collaborative communicationsystem to receive notifications of newly received messages when anaction item is included in the messages and to take appropriate actionwithin the notification when an action item is pending for the user.

In step 610, the communication server receives a plurality of messagesfrom one or more devices associated with one or more users. The usersmay be members of a communication group in a collaborative communicationsystem, where the users exchange messages with one another in real-timevia the collaborative environment. The plurality of messages may containtext, audio, video, data, or any other multimedia content.

In step 620, the communication server identifies whether the pluralityof messages includes an action item associated with a recipient. Therecipient may belong to the same communication group as the one or moreusers and exchange messages with the one or more users in acollaborative environment. The recipient may be currently logged off thecollaborative communication system at the moment when the one or moreusers send the plurality of messages in the collaborative communicationsystem. The action item may be any item pending for the recipient'saction, such as an invitation for the recipient to attend a meeting, aconfirmation request for the recipient to confirm, an approval requestfor the recipient to approve, a task assignment for the recipient tocomplete, and so on.

In step 630, if the plurality of messages includes an action itemassociated with a recipient, the communication server provides anotification including the plurality of messages to a device associatedwith the recipient. In some embodiments, the notification may includethe action item and an interface for the recipient to act on the actionitem. For example, when the newly received messages include a purchaseorder request for the recipient to approve, the notification may includea selectable button of “approve” and a selectable button of “reject” forthe recipient to act on the purchase order request. In someimplementations, the notification may also include an input field forthe recipient to enter comments associated with the action taken on theaction item. For example, when the newly received messages include apurchase order request for the recipient to approve, the notificationmay also include an input field below the selectable buttons of“approve” and “reject” to allow the recipient to enter comments.

In step 640, if the plurality of messages does not include an actionitem associated with a recipient, the communication server determinesthat a notification is not provided to the recipient. In thisembodiment, notifications are only sent to the recipient when thecommunication server detects there are action items for the recipient toconsider. By only sending notifications when there are action items forthe recipient to consider, the recipient may be alerted that an actionitem is pending for his action whenever a notification is received inthe device associated with the recipient. In some implementations, thedevice associated with the recipient may provide an interface for therecipient to select whether to receive notifications of new messages ifthe new messages do not include an action item associated with arecipient. The interface may also allow the recipient to selectparticular action items to trigger the notification. For example, theinterface may allow the recipient to select whether to receivenotifications when the new messages include action item(s) of approvalrequest, meeting invitation, task assignment, or the like.

In some embodiments, some or all of the steps in the process 600 may beperformed by a user device, such as the user devices 120A-120E ofFIG. 1. For example, the user device may be configured to receive aplurality of messages from one or more devices associated with one ormore users, identify whether the plurality of messages includes anaction item associated with a recipient, provide a notification when theplurality of messages includes an action item associated with therecipient, and/or determine that a notification is not provided to therecipient when the plurality of messages does not include an action itemassociated with the recipient.

In the preceding disclosure, various example embodiments have beendescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto,and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing fromthe broader scope of the disclosure as set forth in the claims thatfollow. The disclosure and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in anillustrative rather than restrictive sense.

Therefore, it is intended that the disclosed embodiments and examples beconsidered as examples only, with a true scope of the present disclosurebeing indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.

1.-20. (canceled)
 21. A collaborative communication system, comprising:a memory; and at least one processor configured to: receive a set ofmessages in the collaborative communication system; determine that arecipient is not participating in exchanging the set of messages;identify that the set of messages includes an action item associatedwith the recipient, wherein the action item includes a request for therecipient to act on an item; and provide a notification to the recipientwhen the set of messages includes the action item associated with therecipient.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the action item includesat least one of the following: an invitation to attend a meeting; aconfirmation request; an approval request; and a task assignment. 23.The system of claim 21, wherein the set of messages include one or moresubjects and are exchanged between participants of a first communicationgroup, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:detect one or more messages exchanged between participants of a secondcommunication group, the one or more messages including at least one ofthe one or more subjects; and provide the one or more messages in thenotification.
 24. The system of claim 21, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to: identify an external sourceassociated with at least one or more subjects, wherein the externalsource is not a part of the collaborative environment; and provide a weblink associated with the external source in the notification.
 25. Thesystem of claim 21, wherein the set of messages are exchanged betweenparticipants of a communication group, and wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to: identify one or more messagesassociated with at least one or more subjects, wherein the one or moremessages are transferred between a plurality of participants of thecommunication group prior to the set of messages being received; andprovide the one or more messages in the notification.
 26. The system ofclaim 25, wherein the one or more messages includes a task assigned tothe recipient, and the notification includes a taskbar indicating aprogress of the task.
 27. The system of claim 21, wherein the set ofmessages include a first subject and a second subject, the set ofmessages includes a first group of messages relating to the firstsubject and a second group of messages relating to the second subject,the first group of messages are placed in a first section in thenotification, and the second group of messages are placed in a secondsection in the notification.
 28. A computer-implemented method forproviding notifications for a set of messages, comprising: receiving aset of messages in the collaborative communication system; determiningthat a recipient is not participating in exchanging the set of messages;identifying that the set of messages includes an action item associatedwith the recipient, wherein the action item includes a request for therecipient to act on an item; and providing a notification to therecipient when the set of messages includes the action item associatedwith the recipient.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim 28,wherein the collaborative communication system is accessible through aweb browser.
 30. The computer-implemented method of claim 28, whereinthe set of messages include one or more subjects and are exchangedbetween participants of a first communication group, thecomputer-implemented method further comprising: detecting one or moremessages exchanged between participants of a second communication group,the one or more messages including at least one of the one or moresubjects; and providing the one or more messages in the notification.31. The computer-implemented method of claim 28, further comprising:identifying an external source associated with at least one of the oneor more subjects, wherein the external source is not a part of thecollaborative environment; and providing a web link associated with theexternal source in the notification.
 32. The computer-implemented methodof claim 28, wherein the set of messages are exchanged betweenparticipants of a communication group, the computer-implemented methodfurther comprising: identifying one or more messages associated with atleast one or more subjects, wherein the one or more messages aretransferred between a plurality of participants of the communicationgroup prior to the set of messages being received; and providing the oneor more messages in the notification.
 33. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 32, wherein the one or more messages includes a taskassigned to the recipient, and the notification includes a taskbarindicating a progress of the task.
 34. The computer-implemented methodof claim 28, wherein the set of messages include a first subject and asecond subject, the set of messages includes a first group of messagesrelating to the first subject and a second group of messages relating tothe second subject, the first group of messages are placed in a firstsection in the notification, and the second group of messages are placedin a second section in the notification.
 35. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium that stores a set of instructions that isexecutable by at least one processor of a server to cause the server toperform a method for providing notifications for a set of messages, themethod comprising: receiving a set of messages in the collaborativecommunication system; determining that a recipient is not participatingin exchanging the set of messages; identifying that the set of messagesincludes an action item associated with the recipient, wherein theaction item includes a request for the recipient to act on an item; andproviding a notification to the recipient when the set of messagesincludes the action item associated with the recipient.
 36. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein the actionitem includes at least one of the following: an invitation to attend ameeting; a confirmation request; an approval request; and a taskassignment.
 37. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 35,wherein the set of messages include one or more subjects and areexchanged between participants of a first communication group, thecomputer-readable medium storing a set of further instructions that isexecutable by the at least one processor to cause the server to perform:detecting one or more messages exchanged between participants of asecond communication group, the one or more messages including at leastone of the one or more subjects; and providing the one or more messagesin the notification.
 38. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 35, storing a set of further instructions that is executable bythe at least one processor to cause the server to perform: identifyingan external source associated with at least one of the one or moresubjects, wherein the external source is not a part of the collaborativeenvironment; and providing a web link associated with the externalsource in the notification.
 39. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 35, wherein the set of messages are exchanged betweenparticipants of a communication group, the computer-readable mediumstoring a set of further instructions that is executable by the at leastone processor to cause the server to perform: identifying one or moremessages associated with at least one or more subjects, wherein the oneor more messages are transferred between a plurality of participants ofthe communication group prior to the set of messages being received; andproviding the one or more messages in the notification.
 40. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 35, wherein the set ofmessages include a first subject and a second subject, the set ofmessages includes a first group of messages relating to the firstsubject and a second group of messages relating to the second subject,the first group of messages are placed in a first section in thenotification, and the second group of messages are placed in a secondsection in the notification.